Original subtitles

(fireworks crackling)

(tranquil orchestral music)

- One word to describe Colin Hay,

how do you do that?

- Let me think.

- God, I'm gonna take ten seconds and make it good.

- He's a story teller.

- Storyteller.

- A storyteller.

- Don't want to say storyteller, mate,

'cause everyone's been saying that.

- Funny.

- Hilarious.

- Hilarious.

- Complex.

- Obsessive-compulsive.

- Martian.

- Alien.

- Scottish.

- Scottish.

- Genius.

- Well, not genius, but (laughs).

- Is a man one word?

- Living legend, that's two words?

Can I hyphenate?

- Elegant.

- Honest. - Honest.

- Generous.

- Generous.

- And, he's a treasure.

- Intense. - Resilient.

- Brave.

- Bubbles.

(Colin laughing)

* My, my, my, it's a beautiful world

* I like swimming in the sea

* I like to go out beyond the white breakers

* Where a man can still be free

* Or a woman if you are one

* I like swimming in the sea

(gentle guitar music)

- My name's Colin Hay and I was born

on the Southwest coast of Scotland.

(audience applauding and cheering)

Britain, in the '50s and '60s was,

it was in black and white.

And, there was something beautiful about that, you know,

but bleak, bleakly beautiful.

It was usually raining, the sky was gray.

It was economically depressed.

It fucking black and white, you know.

There was still big holes

where they dropped bombs, you know?

I was brought up in a music shop, from the age of five

until I was 14.

Amazing way to grow up, surrounded by pianos and guitars

and drums and records.

It was the only music shop in town.

It was the only place where you could get records.

- My only memory is us in the music shop.

And, it's only when you think about it now

how incredible that was, to be immersed

in such an exciting period of history,

as far as music was concerned.

- One day, I came home from school

and my father was sitting there.

He goes, "Come here.

"Have a listen to these guys," and he played me a track

by the Beatles, just blew my mind, you know?

He said, "They're pretty good."

He said, "I think they'll do well."

(audience laughing)

My father and mother were

very hardworking people from Glasgow.

They were ambitious and they wanted to provide a,

have a good life for them and the family

and my father got sick of the rain.

The weather was horrible and I was a bronchial asthmatic

and he figured he'd go somewhere warmer.

- Colin's health was not good in that climate

and Dad had also served in the War, in India and Singapore,

so he knew there was other things in the world.

- [Announcer] Come over to the sunny side, now.

Australia, a great place for families.

Opportunity for you, fine for your wife,

great for your children.

You could be on your way

to a sunnier future in the New Year.

- So, in the '50s the government, obviously,

was, you know, encouraging skilled or unskilled laborers

to come out from, you know, the UK or wherever

and, you know, for 10 pounds, you could jump on the boat

and come on out to Australia and work out here.

- He was very heroic, my father,

as fathers should be, in big ways and small.

You know, we went to the other side of the world.

That was a big thing, (mimics explosion)

like, it just blew our minds.

I sailed across the sea,

my family, me.

It was like going from black and white to Technicolor.

Everyone was different; like, kids my age were different.

It was less social entrenchment.

It was less, less difference, you know, religious division.

- So, it was a prosperous time for the children

coming from the gray part of Scotland

to come to the warmth of sun and the sky and openness.

- People had that free vibe about them,

like, they just would go surfing

and they would go to the beach and they lived outside

and they wore, you know, flip flops and shorts and stuff.

- The very first day I ever met Colin was

when he arrived at our school,

straight off the boat from Scotland,

and his Scottish accent was so thick,

nobody could understand a word he said.

- People used to say to me,

"What kind of accent's that you got, mate?"

Oh, it's a Scottish accent.

"No, you can't talk like that here, mate.

"Gotta learn how to talk like us."

So, I learned how to speak like an Australian bloke,

just to assimilate and get by

and not get into too many fights.

- The Australian kids would make fun of you

and you hit one of them and they were bigger and stronger,

they'd had a good diet, and they'd beat the crap outta you

and you'd start to speak the way they speak.

- Everyone knew who he was, red hair, big personality

and a very talented musician, right from the word go.

- The guitar was always an extension of Colin.

He had it with him all the time.

* I dream of lying in the sun

* In my ears, hear the ocean roaring

* Like all good wayfaring sons

* I traveled home

* With some more good stories

* I build them up through time

* They'll all become a pack of lies

* When I'm beyond my prime

* Oh my, my, my, oh, my, my oh

* Oh my, my, my, oh, my, my, my

* Oh my, my, my, oh, my, my oh, oh

(strummed guitar music)

Around '68, '69, I was playing the guitar and singing

and Jeff Richardson put together the Balmorals Folk Club.

- It was his first professional gig

where it was like the grownups, I suppose,

and Colin became a fixture in the Balmorals Folk Club.

- I was playing in bands as well,

but I didn't really relate to bands that well,

because I never really played Blues very well.

I couldn't play anything very well.

I wasn't an expert at anything,

but I knew that I wanted to write songs.

- He had that, you know, there's nothing else I want to do.

- The only reason he was at university was

because his parents wanted, insisted that he went.

- And so, I realized that I needed to strategize,

I needed to plan, I need to plot and scheme,

that this was not gonna happen easily.

("Be Good Johnny" by Men At Work)

- I first met Colin in 19, late '70s.

He was then acting in a play, a musical.

The first thing that struck me about him was

his singing and his presence on stage, really, bang.

- [Colin] And, just before I went

to do that show, I met Ron.

That was a real creative light going off.

- We jammed and it was like I was fitting in to what he had.

- Meeting Ron was a watershed moment, I think.

I can remember Colin coming home

from having visited friends and he said,

"I've just met this guy.

"I've just met the guy I want to play with, he's amazing."

- He tracked me down and said, "We're gonna continue."

I said, "Yeah, that was pretty good.

"Yeah, let's do that again," and then (laughs).

- [Colin] We wrote Down Under during that time,

maybe a year before Men At Work formed.

- [Ron] I would have something half-finished

or just an idea.

I'd pass it to him, he would come and we'd, you know,

we started to get really combined.

- Ronno, who's a brilliant guitarist

and, you know, normally in a band,

you'd want someone who's, could do everything and flash

and Ronno was just a very unique guitar player

who'd play wrong styles of music in other styles.

He would play, like, a swing guitar in reggae

and he'd play, he mixed things up.

- That was like a musical marriage, the two of them.

It was magic.

(electric guitar music)

- Men At Work probably would have never happened

if it hadn't have been for Kim,

because Kim introduced me to Greg,

because Greg had gone to school with Kim, and also, Jerry.

- [Kim] And, I played in a band with Jerry--

- Called Lace Medallion. - Lace Medallion.

- One of the guys who I'd played with for years,

he basically said he didn't want to do it anymore

and I went and saw Colin the same day

and, and said, you know, "Do you want to do something?"

- [Colin] Then Jerry brought in John.

John was Jerry's guy and then, that was the lineup.

(electric guitar music)

- Melbourne was Mecca and the quality of bands in Melbourne

was just so strong.

- It was a really happening pub scene,

like, people loved live music.

- It's the only thing that made any sense,

because it was young people telling their story.

- Cricketer's Arms, they actually had a residency

at the Cricketer's Arms.

- It wasn't a rock gig until we made it one.

- [Jeff] Well, The Cricketer's became a huge residency

for Men At Work and it was a scene.

- Incredibly tiny, free, chaotic,

unsafe, hot, sweaty, smoky, but an unbelievable gig.

- The place got so crowded, you know, and I remember,

I remember Greg playing the sax and there's this, someone,

there's a guy standing, you know,

like inches away from his face.

- So, even if we only had 50 or 60 people there,

it was packed.

When we put a hundred and 50 people in there,

they were hanging from the rafters.

- One guy drunk-fell on my bass

and snapped my neck, the bass.

I had to gaffer it up and play the rest of the gig.

The audience was great.

It was a good audience.

(rhythmic guitar music)

- You need the smelly, smoky bar

and the drunks falling on your equipment to get in touch.

- As you went along to successive gigs, you could see

how the songs were being refined and developed

and the audiences were building.

- We played at the Pier Hotel in Frankston,

every Wednesday night;

Cricketer's Arms, every Thursday night.

- Five nights a week, they'd be playing.

- Even seven days a week, for weeks on end.

- [Linda] His ambition was so powerful.

That's what drove it.

- We were on our way.

I was gonna make sure of that,

you know, I just, like, "This is, just get out of the way."

- It was obsessive.

It was all we talked about.

It was our entire life, and the only way to be with Colin

was to be a part of that.

- Dare I say, that also was one of the things

that attracted people to me, is that they knew

that I would do that, so they could latch on to that

and I would deliver.

(upbeat guitar and saxophone music)

- They were a funny band, Men At Work,

because they were very idiosyncratic.

They rejected most of the norms

of the pop music business at the time.

They wore clothes that no one else,

you know, when everywhere else was wearing big shoulder pads

and they'd wear singlets

and they kind of were proud of this difference,

which created this really loyal audience.

- Paul Russell said to me, "Look, there's one guy,

"in particular in the Melbourne sales branch

"who keeps digging up the carpark

"and putting Men At Work signs around the place

"because he's so passionate about this band

"that I want you to take a look and see

"if there's anything in it."

I saw them and I thought, hmm, oh, this band's interesting.

I got more into their material and came back

and I told Paul, who was running the company,

that I thought, you know, "I think they're worth

"having a go with, you know, they're really good."

* Get ready to run

(rhythmic guitar music)

- So, I went one night to check them out again

and along with me came this guy, Peter McIan.

- And he said, "I just really like 'em, I love 'em, come on.

"I want to see what you think."

- And, he said, "I'd really like to produce these guys."

- What do you want to do?

I'm in, whatever it is.

You know, I just think they're great.

- I managed to sort of bring them around to the point

where he could do a single with them.

- We started to work on Who Can It Be Now?,

in a small rehearsal space.

And, right from the get-go, you know,

I started moving parts around.

- There was too much shit in there, you know.

It needed to be just weeded out, and that's what McIan did.

- You know, I started to move the sax part to the front

and Jerry's famous drum fill to open the song.

- When we played it live, that saxophone hook never came in

till halfway through the song, which is ridiculous.

But, when you're playing in a pub, it doesn't matter

'cause everyone's getting fucked up

and they're just, you're playing away and,

* Dun gun gun, gun gun gun

and then, all the sudden, halfway through you're,

* Ba da mm ba da da

and people are, "Oh, oh!"

But, you know, a radio programmer's not gonna,

you know, he's not in the pub.

He's not drinking.

He's, you know, nine o'clock in the morning,

you know, "Good morning, WZ, WNZK, you know, here we go,"

and you have, dum, dum.

("Who Can It Be Now?" by Men At Work)

(rhythmic saxophone music)

* Who can it be knocking at my door

* Go away (drowned out) - So I walk in

and I hear this thing and I go, "Oh my God.

"This, this is an, this is an absolute smash

"and it's not even finished."

No, I just thought, this is so going to work.

It was so exciting.

* Stay away, don't you invade my home

There's a lot of things that conspired

to create our success.

Firstly, we were good and we had good songs

and we had a great record producer

and we made a good record.

- We tried very hard to get them

to release Men At Work in America,

but they were so, the only commitment I could get was

a commitment to release the single.

- Unless it came from Great Britain,

there was no rest of the world, in terms of music.

- So, we had all these little spot fires,

all over the world, where the record was doing well

and the States was the last country

and the United States in, you know, a supreme example

of cultural arrogance rejected the record twice,

said, "Look, there's no hits on this,

"We're not gonna release it."

- I went and saw my old boss there,

who was head of the international company,

a guy called Dick Asher, and I said,

"Look, the American company won't release this

"and it's ridiculous they don't release it

"because it's happening all over the world

"and charting incredibly well."

- So, Dick Asher listened to it and he overrode the,

he overrode the NR, Not to Release, and they released it.

- But, the moment that went to radio, it just went bang.

* Yeah

(rhythmic saxophone music)

- The pivotal thing that broke them in America was

the launching of MTV and the video, 'cause MTV was launched

right when the American company finally decided

to pick up the single.

- The whole thing just started to build and build

and it was like we just created this wave

and then, we just rode the thing.

It's like we couldn't, there was a point

where it was like we couldn't do anything wrong.

* Who can it be now

* Who can it be now

* Who can it be now

* Who can it be now

* Oh oh oh

* Who can it be now

* Oh we oh

- I was going down to Australia to visit my family

and to do some advance work for the Fleetwood Mac tour

and while I was there, I was at a big department store

and, trying on a pair of new jeans, as you do,

and I'm hearing this through the speakers of the store,

I'm hearing this,

* Do do do do do do do do do do

I'm hearing it and I go, hang on,

this is a damn good track, you know, who is this?

And, I just got into this album.

I thought, this album's incredible.

- I was connected to Dennis Dunstan,

who later became my manager,

and he had a great sense about music

and he related this band

and we were looking for an opening act

and he literally called it before it happened.

He said, "Mick, they're gonna have a number one album."

- At this fancy dress party, I went up to the DJ,

at about 12:30, one o'clock

and he was playing the same old material

that was around at the time

and I said, "Just put this on and crank it up."

Obviously, the rest is history.

The whole party just got up, started jumping around

and dancing and having a ball

and that's when Mick came up to me.

He says, "Is that those guys

"that you've playing in the car?"

I said, "Yeah, that's Men At Work."

I said, "That's the guys I think we should have

"as the opening act."

He says, "Well, you got my vote."

- They came on the tour, they opened up

and as the tour progressed, this little, unknown band,

they ended up, by the end of the tour,

with a number one album or, certainly, a number one song.

- It was, Who Can It Be Now?

It went to number one during the tour

and by the end of the tour,

their album was number one and ours was number three.

- They took us under their wing.

They actually taught us how to work a big stage.

- They showed their mettle with what they did with us

and became a very powerful component on that tour.

- Well, you have to get to the point

where there is that critical mass.

You have to get to the point

where there's that tipping point.

You have to get to the point where those little fires are

smoldering, smoldering, smoldering

and then they go (imitating explosion)

and once they take, there's nothing can stop it.

- The '80s kind of began with Men At Work.

That was the shot that was fired.

("Down Under" but Men At Work)

It was like this different type of ecstatic energy,

running through their songs.

- We were traveling, doing the Hippie Trail across India,

I think, and we'd left this small pub band

and we'd been traveling for, I don't know,

six months or something and we were in the middle of India

and I was sure I could hear Down Under.

And then, somewhere, I don't know, in the Middle East,

I thought I heard it again.

I called the waiter over

and I said, "I know this song, I know these people,"

and he looked at me like I was an idiot

and that, which I was, and he said, "Well, yeah.

"They're the biggest band on Earth at the moment."

(upbeat pop music)

- We were doing five day sales at 325,000 records,

every five days.

* Buying bread from a man in Brussels

- Men At Work absolutely was the entire consciousness

of what Australia meant to Americans at that time.

* He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich

- Vegemite!

Has anybody talked about Vegemite?

- No one in this country had ever heard

of a Vegemite sandwich before.

- I do believe that that song was a mass representation

of, you know, like, Vegemite culture, Australian culture.

- And, now, everybody kind of knows what that is.

They won't eat it, but they at least know what it is.

* Yeah

(upbeat guitar and flute music)

(audience applauding and cheering)

(orchestral music) (audience applauding)

- When I think about all the people who've won

the Best New Artist Award in the past,

I realize that this award is

not just for the new star of today, but for someone

who just possibly may be a star for years to come.

- A Grammy is a huge accolade, you know.

It's a huge thing.

- Our dressing room was next to Miles Davis,

which was next to Lena Horne,

which was next to Ella Fitzgerald,

which was next to all these people, famous, famous people,

famous, famous people.

And then, there was us.

- And the award goes to,

(audience cheering)

Men At Work. (audience applauding)

(orchestra playing "Who Can It Be Now?")

(audience cheering)

- Where am I?

Best New Artist, 1982, that's when we were Best New Artist.

And, we are the Men and we'll see you again.

(audience applauding and cheering)

(sparse bass and drum music)

* No one knows what I can see

* And what I see, it pleases me

* Oh my, ooh

- I got into Men At Work at Cargo.

Like, I knew the radio songs for Business as Usual,

but I was a little young to be like, "I want that record."

But, then, Cargo, it was just, when it came out,

it was just, like, for some reason, I just,

I have to buy that record.

("Overkill" by Men At Work)

* I can't get to sleep

* I think about the implications

- I hold Overkill in such a high regard.

I mean, that song is gorgeous.

* Well, day after day, it reappears

* Night after night, my heartbeat shows the fears

We played at Radio City Music Hall,

which is a very exciting place to play.

I think we did either five or seven nights

and I called my mother and I said,

"Well, you'll have to come and see the band,"

and she said, "Oh, yeah, we'll come."

So, I brought them across.

Well, my father was quite truly awestruck by the city

and everything about it.

I had a limousine for them,

I had a limousine for them all the time, at one point,

and my father got in the limousine

and I said, "Is everything okay?"

And, he goes, "How does that guy know

"that every time I walk down, he seems to be just there,

"how does he know that I'm coming down?"

I said, "Oh, well, he's there for you all the time, Dad,

"so he's waiting for you."

- We were over at their house

and then Linda, his wife then, said,

"Carol, Carol, you haven't seen my new car."

So, out we go to the driveway

and there's this beautiful little black Alfa

and then, down the driveway, there's a little red one,

just like hers and I said, "Whose is the red one?"

And, everyone goes quiet and he says, "It's yours."

So, I was driving along, in that car,

and one of his songs came on the radio.

I had to pull over, because I just,

it was just completely overwhelming.

- I quite liked the caviar and vodka in First Class,

that was quite nice.

- These guys went from playing a pub, within two years,

we were in a helicopter flying over the US Festival

on our way to be second on the bill

with The Clash, 300,000 people.

(audience applauding and cheering)

- Well, you are here and you are them.

This is us,

(audience applauding and cheering)

and we are the Men!

(rock guitar music)

* By your leave

* I think that I'll be going now

* I think I'll stay (drowned out)

- Flying in on the helicopter,

seeing all these people was amazing.

- The stage was so big, we had to wave, you know,

to the saxophone player, "Hi, I'm up here."

* Like chasing wild geese in the snow

* Pressing faces on the windowpanes

* That's a long, long time ago

* We go to a restaurant

* You're saying it's love you want

* I realize, I can see it in your eyes

* You're moving to something more

(upbeat rock guitar music)

(audience applauding and cheering)

Thank you.

- The real test of a band is not when you're on your way up,

it's when you're on your way down,

because when you're on your way up

and you're going for something,

then you have something achievable.

But, once you've achieved it,

the next logical question is, "Now what?"

(upbeat electric guitar music)

- Because America was so late, Cargo

and Business as Usual collided.

- It was a constant Men At Work song in high rotation

in America for probably three years.

- It was saturation.

There was no break between the first and the second album.

- And, it was so big and there was so much airplay

that they were having.

- No Men At Work.

- No Men At Work.

- No Men At Work.

- Non-Men At Work days on radio.

I'd never heard that, ever.

- As soon as you bring in the potential

of large sums of money,

things, all the sudden, get very, very weird.

- Egos sort of start to take over.

Perhaps there's a sense of believing

what everyone's saying about you,

you know, that you're so fantastic and famous.

- Conflict began to happen in the band

and it wasn't being resolved.

- Things that are not said are usually more trouble

than the things that are said.

- And, even a very simple thing like a band having

some kind of sense of unity.

And then, Rolling Stone comes along,

take all these pictures, all these pictures,

all these pictures, ends up, Greg and I on the cover.

It had nothing to do with me.

It wasn't my idea, but it's how they saw the band.

So, external things start to come into play

which cause all these resentments and divides

that have nothing, really, to do with you.

- Jerry had decided he was going to get his own manager

and that new manager was actually going to be his sister.

- Who knew nothing about music business,

knew nothing about bands

and nothing about anything to do with what we were doing.

Jerry said, "Oh, well, you know,

"Russell's not a real manager."

Maybe Russell's not a real manager,

but I'm not, am I, am I a real musician, you know?

You put a but of music in front of me,

I'm gonna take a few days to get through it,

but I can knock out a tune and entertain people,

so we'd gotten to where we were because of what we had.

- I basically made a decision that I was gonna leave.

- I wanted out of the band.

I was gonna leave.

- But then, thought, I'm gonna hang in here.

- And, Russell talked me into staying.

- Then, I was asked to leave.

(frenetic guitar music)

- And, I was very, just disappointed because of the,

the way it was done because I thought

we'd at least work it through.

- I didn't want to sack anybody.

This is not what I wanted.

In the first place, I don't want to get on stage

with these guys anymore and I'm done.

Russell said to me, "But, it's your band.

"What, what are you gonna leave for?"

- He probably underplayed the contributions

of the other people.

- So, Ron left.

- I didn't really have a reason.

It wasn't, like, thought out.

- And, of course, that was funny,

because we were in the studio one day.

- I just had this feeling, I want to go.

- I said, "You coming back?"

And, he said, "No."

- And, off I went.

- And, he left and he went home and he never came back.

And then, Greg left.

The band was done.

- You'd never pick these five people to put together, right,

but it came together, it had a chemistry.

There was a magic.

- Bands are funny things

and there's a way people fit together

and add certain things.

- This band was a great dream of mine

and it had let me down.

I felt resented.

I felt betrayed.

- It's a marriage and it's a weird marriage

and the only people you have

to kind of go after is each other.

- With, for that particular bunch of people involved,

it was too much psychological, emotional fragility.

It was something great and huge,

which was essentially just kept small by small-mindedness.

And, I'm certainly not guiltless, but, at the time,

it's like, "Okay, well this is the information that I have.

"This is the decision I'm gonna make

"and when you think back on it, you think,

"that was the dumbest fucking thing," you know, but.

(screaming)

- We have quite a bit more coming with Colin Hay

and he's gonna tell us why, besides musical differences,

these guys left the band, right?

- No.

- After a few years of recovery from the band's breakup,

Colin James Hay is now on his own, nurturing a solo career.

- When you have a brand name like Men At Work,

just be aware of what may happen

if you aren't Men At Work anymore.

(moody guitar music)

- As there were lots of things

that conspired to make the band successful,

there were lots of things that conspired

for my commercial failure after that.

- I mean, that's a really unique situation.

You win a Grammy, you've got tens of thousands of people out

going, "Oh, yes, we love you," the band break up

and you go out and you have expectations.

- You think it's gonna work.

You think that people are gonna play it

and then, nobody plays it.

- So, you're the same person, you're the same performer,

you have the same talent, but nobody cares.

(moody guitar music)

- Yeah, it's frustrating, frustrating,

frustrating because you, I felt like I was making,

I kept on making wrong moves.

I kept on doing the, you know, fucking up, in a way.

- I think he was struggling, then.

- Colin, at first, was a little angry.

There was a sense of, this isn't fair.

- It doesn't matter, your time is,

it's like your time's gone by

and you're on the dark side of the moon.

My life was chaotic.

I was, I was reeling with, you know, alcoholic behavior.

- There were years where being around him was

like walking on eggshells and it wasn't fun.

- Colin had been inconsolable for quite a while.

Nothing seemed to work anymore and I just said,

"I can't do this anymore, just can't do this anymore."

- [Colin] My wife had left me

and I was drinking a lot,

did lots of drugs.

- And, it was an unhappy period, very unhappy period.

- I told my father I was an alcoholic

and he didn't take it well.

He couldn't really deal with it.

He didn't really want to know about it, really, you know?

Whereas it used to be very real and very dark

and very painful and, you know,

wondering how I'd gotten to where I was, you know.

It's a scary, it's a scary, when you're getting,

when you end up, you know, getting blackouts

and then you're waking up not remembering how you got home,

it's time to stop.

- He suffered terribly.

He fell off a couple of times,

when he was firs starting to give it up.

- It's like, every day, I would get up

and I would pick up this fucking sword, you know,

and go to battle every day and slay the dragon

and, sometimes, you would win.

But, it was such an effort and so stressful

and it just takes so much out of you.

But, it's all about surrendering, I mean, it really is

all about just not picking up the sword.

So, everything was pointing to Los Angeles for me.

I did it by going to AA meetings.

It took me five years to finally stop.

I mean, it was all a progression.

You know, it's never just,

okay, boom, one thing and then off you go.

It's always just, you struggle and you fall

and you pick yourself up and you start again

and I moved in here.

I bought this house in 1991.

It's been fantastic to me, this house, 'cause it felt

like a very safe, kind place, you know,

and so I started doing yoga and, you know,

and just writing songs.

- I mean, it's a lovely place for him.

It's a peaceful place for him.

It's healthy place for him.

I had nothing to look back to.

I wasn't walking in my old footsteps, you know?

I wasn't walking past the Esplanade Hotel.

I wasn't walking past all these places that had my history.

I was walking towards something

and I wasn't sure what that was, but it was exciting.

(upbeat rock guitar music)

* I hear the calling of the music

From '91 on, being in Los Angeles was really, for me,

synonymous with really playing at Largo.

- I met Colin when I just first moved out here.

Somebody brought me to see him play

and I didn't, I didn't know who Colin Hay was.

You know, I knew who Men At Work were,

but I started this venue, Largo on Fairfax,

around the end of '91.

- And, that was right when I was dropped

and it was right when I'd given up the drink.

- He was the first person that I was like,

God, I wonder, would he play here?

And he said, "Sure," you know, and then it became,

like, right off the bat, a monthly show.

* I can't get to sleep

* I think about the implication

- [Mark] The shows were always sold out on Friday nights

and it would be Mitch Hedberg opening

and then Elliott Smith would get up and do a song

and all these great, great talents.

And the, Colin would get up and do Overkill

and everyone would be like, "I'm not going up after that.

"There's no fucking way I'm going after that," you know.

- And, he hit those notes at the end.

* I can't get to sleep

* I think about the implication

* Of diving in too deep

- And, I was just floored and I was like,

okay, I can't take this.

Like, this is, this is best thing I have seen.

- Largo exists on Flanagan's taste.

If someone's playing there, you know it's good.

You know it's real.

- Any time there's anything in Los Angeles

that resembles a family or a community,

people gravitate towards it because it is the thing

that everyone is missing.

And, Largo definitely became that place

and it was definitely Flanagan's personality,

and his Pit Bull-like attitude

about protecting the artists, the comedians, the musicians

that worked there from the industry.

- You know, there was no agent would come near me.

You know, I'd call them

and they go, "Oh, have you got a record deal?"

No, no, oh, you know, so,

so I just would sit at home and I'd kind of write songs

and I would go at play at Largo.

- Him playing at Largo, that challenge that was involved,

is the very thing that sharpened his tools,

in as far as being a communicator and being a performer,

to a whole new level.

* Night after night my heartbeat shows the fear

* Ghosts appear and fade away

* Ghosts appear and fade away

* Ghosts appear and fade away

(strummed guitar music)

There was no other major record label

interested in signing me, from what I could tell.

I just decided that the best thing for me to do

would be to do an acoustic album.

- I had a record label at the time and went,

"Look, I'd love to put it out."

We didn't record him.

He recorded himself,

but we were the conduit to putting it out

and it was beautiful.

* Into the cornfields

* Into the cornfields

- It wasn't particularly that I wanted

to become an independent artist, it was just circumstance.

Circumstance usually dictate most things.

(gentle guitar music)

I didn't really know what to do with myself, so,

I thought, well, I better go out on the road,

to distract myself, if nothing else.

So, off I went, on my merry way,

playing for the likes of your good selves

around this fair land.

(audience cheering)

But, I was using you, shamelessly,

while I plotted and schemed, tried to figure out

how to get back to the lofty peaks of superstardom,

where I so clearly belong.

(audience laughing)

Ha, that was in 1991.

(audience chuckling)

I have a long-term plan.

(audience laughing)

- The road is, it just gets brutal

because it just wears you down, it wears you.

You lose sense of time and place

and so, there's a dizzying sense of, like, chaos.

I'm sure if you're older and wiser and keep it together

and are sober, it's a little better,

if you're drinking tea instead of whiskey,

but it's still not a normal way to live a life.

(door slamming)

- The first tour that I did,

we played this little theater.

It was just a bunch of drunken fraternity friends who came.

They didn't, they weren't into the idea

that Colin was doing any kind of show

and the first thing I thought, when I got in here is,

why are we playing this shithole to 60 people

and why isn't this more successful than it is?

- We went to see him at the Fringe

and there was five people in the audience, right.

There were, you know, and that was a regular thing.

But, he went from being this massive rock star

to real, you know, and in show business,

that's a hard thing to take, that really is.

Even, that's my biggest fear, is playing to nobody.

- There was one gig that nobody came, you know, in Broom,

just, not one person came.

It was just me and the tour manager, David,

and the publican, the guy who ran the place,

the guy who owned it.

And, I walk in and (laughs) I swear, nobody there.

And, he just looks at me and he goes,

"Well, I don't know what happened, Col, must be a bit cold."

That was his, that was his reason.

I mean, it was Broom;

it never gets fucking cold, you know?

And, that was, and now, I'm going on stage, you know,

I'm gonna play still, 'cause, I don't know,

maybe that's what Protestantism is, I don't know.

I remember David come out to me saying,

"You don't have to go on, mate.

"There's nobody here."

I went, "Oh, really?"

He goes, "Yeah."

"Oh, fuck, let's go, let's just go then," you know?

A terrible night, though, really.

- Yeah, it's brutal.

It's depressing.

- I couldn't figure out whether I was tricking myself,

whether it was habit that I was out there for,

it probably was a bit of habit, whether I liked it,

what I was trying to do with these people

who were kind of like, you know, "Play Down Under!"

- I don't envy him, I don't.

That is a hard slog,

especially when you've been doing it for so long.

- Yeah, that's a good question.

(gentle guitar music)

It's like a big room for me,

a bit fancy,

because I've played in some shitholes, let me tell you.

(audience laughing)

* If you hear a voice

* Call our your name

* Saying you can stop yourself from falling

- You see people like Colin are inspirational,

always to me, still,

because the only sort of way to be invulnerable

is almost to be completely vulnerable.

You can be clever and everything like that,

but the more vulnerable you are

to those humiliations that come to you,

the more, and if you've got the balls,

the more you'll be what you really are

when you're in front of an audience.

- People that are committed to telling their stories

and having their expression,

irrespective of the number of people in front of them

is a very powerful thing.

You have to follow that path.

You have to follow your vision.

You can't shortcut your vision, you know,

if you're searching for truth through art.

* There's no time left for faking

* Now I no longer need to understand

* What it is to truly be a man

* Only when I gave up on my master plan

* Did I then hear freedom calling

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the one, the only,

Queen of Salsoul, my wife, Cecilia Noel.

(audience applauding and cheering)

(gentle guitar music)

- I was living in Manhattan.

The first time that I saw him at the,

those famous studios on 8th Avenue,

I recognized him from the back.

He was pouring coffee and I came into the lounge

and there he was.

Of course, we met and talked for a few minutes.

And then, years later, I was playing at this benefit

in Topanga Canyon and he was there, on stage,

playing before me and one of my girls, she would say to me,

"Oy, oy, oy, your boyfriend is there.

"He's here, he's here, he's here, he's come."

I said, "But no--"

"You're gonna marry him one day.

"You're gonna see, you're gonna marry him one day."

And, and, then you think that is?

(laughing)

- I think what?

- [Cecilia] You're not very good (drowned out).

- What, what (laughs, what are you saying to me?

- They're a yin yang and just such a fabulous balance

and she's just so explosive and wild and intense

and he has that wonderful dry, wry quality.

(Cecilia drowned out) (Colin laughing)

- You're, you're disturbing my wah, my wah.

(laughing)

- Shah. - Si, baby,

I can't think straight, anyway.

- I wanted a real man.

I wanted someone powerful, like him,

and spiritually, you know?

Like, he seemed to be very solid, solid, mm, like a bull,

you know, like that Scottish thing of that,

I'm here, I'm gonna protect you.

- Hmm. - You all right?

- [Cecilia] What do you want to talk about?

(laughing)

- Any, everything, everything and nothing at the same time.

Oh, you, woo.

* My, my, my, it's a beautiful world

* I like swimming in the sea

- She's brought an element to him

that, I think, has given him some stability.

- You really take your pencil and you draw,

you draw your life.

How do you want it to be?

And, you know, you make the strokes the way you want them,

you know, to flow.

I think that we have painted a beautiful life together.

It's really lovely.

Okay. - Goodbye.

Gracias. - I'm gonna try to be quiet,

but, you know, - No, please.

- I'm gonna have to move some heavy equipment.

- [Interviewer] I understand.

(laughing)

- [Colin] She's Cecilia Noel.

There's nobody else like Cecilia Noel.

* Are you looking at me

- Me, me.

* Are you looking at me

- I said, are you looking at me, pal?

(audience applauding and cheering)

Cecilia Noel, ladies and gentlemen.

(orchestra playing "Down Under" by Men At Work)

George Burns, George Burns always used to say,

"Make sure you," I actually don't know

what George Burns exactly used to say,

but I think he used to say,

"Make sure you always take your wallet

"or your money onstage with you."

- [Emcee] Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome

a man who needs no introduction.

- [Colin] Whew.

- I actually got to meet and know Colin through my wife Deb,

they were really good friends,

and I remember her taking me to a cafe in Melbourne

and Colin used to do a live show there.

And, at the table I was at was a big executive

from Mushroom Records and he had with him

some young group that he had hired

and I said, "Oh, that's cool, you're bringing 'em here

"to see Colin," and it was a dinner sort of show

and they said, "Oh, we always bring our new acts

"to see Colin Hay because of anyone we have ever signed,

"of anyone out there, he,

"no one knows how to to hold an audience,

"knows how to deliver in a live setting like Colin Hay.

"It's like getting a master class in how to perform."

* By your leave

* I think that I'll be going, now

* I think I stayed a little long

- I heard him sing, just acoustically,

and it was at one of these events that I,

it just stopped me in my tracks and I, for the first time,

I think, really heard his voice

and just what a uniquely gorgeous voice he has.

* Pressing faces on the windowpane

* That's a long, long time ago

* We go to a restaurant

* You say it's love you want

- The singing is a huge part of it,

but it's just a part of it.

- 'Cause all the songs,

they all hang out in the dressing room,

new songs are always sitting and looking expectantly,

"I wonder if I'll get played tonight."

Down Under's always kind of standing in the corner,

filing its fucking nails, you know,

(audience laughing)

just going, "Oh, yes, well, he'll probably play me last,

"of course, because I am the most famous."

(audience laughing)

And, sometimes I play it a bit earlier,

you know, it's, "Oh, he wants me now, oh."

(audience laughing)

I never realized till now that my song is a gay man.

(audience laughing)

- His storytelling is second to none.

I, I just piss myself laughing from beginning to end.

I never wanted it to stop.

- When he talks about his father, it's hysterically funny,

but it's so honest.

- My Dad, he used to sing my songs to me,

as well, when I was, when he would drive me to the airport

to come back to America,

he would croon my songs,

(laughs) like Sinatra, you know.

He would be driving along and he would just,

he would just turn 'round, he'd go,

* I can't get to, sleep

(audience laughing)

And, he would sing the wrong words just to annoy me.

* I think about the complications

That's one of yours, you know.

- He has a good time with the stories he's telling

and he's happy to take the piss out of himself

as much as he takes the piss out of you, so, you know,

you're all kind of having a good laugh together.

- I went back to Scotland and I played my hometown.

Now, my hometown, I've not, I've never played there before.

I'm about three or four songs into it

and it's going quite well,

and I hear the door open,

just on the stage,

just, just here, you know,

and I turned around

and there's these two women standing there

with their arms crossed and I said,

"Oh, will you go, I'm onstage."

And they said,

"Aye, there's a car blocking the neighbor's driveway.

"It needs shifting, can you announce it?"

(audience laughing)

Oh, I love this.

I love this, this is fucking magic.

I said, "Oh, well, I'm trying to do a show here."

"I can see that, but it's blocking the driveway

"and needs shifting."

(audience chuckling)

If whoever's blocking the fucking neighbor's drive,

move your car.

(audience applauding and cheering)

And, somebody's yelled out, "Welcome home, Colin."

- It's not, let's rock this arena.

It's, here's a funny story that'll make you laugh.

Okay, enjoy your beer.

Now I'm gonna sing a song that's gonna fucking make you cry

and think about the lost loves of your life.

And then, I'll tell another funny story, don't worry.

- Tells a lot of stories, these days.

Sometimes I want him to sing more.

It was sharp, sing another song.

- Two. * I can't get to sleep

* I think about the implications

- [Zach] What?

I followed a girl out to LA, which is always a good idea,

and not much remains of this relationship

other than the fact that she brought me to Largo.

- Whenever he'd play Largo,

I would bring another friend to to the show.

- I don't know what Cary's version of this is,

but I don't remember if it was the girl or Cary,

does Cary say he told me about him?

- Dude, one of those people that I actively was like,

"You gotta come and see this show," was Zach Braff.

- Yeah, of course he does, fucking Cary Brothers.

- I had seen

Colin perform at Largo a long time ago,

before we started Scrubs and I thought, I went,

that's the guy from Men At Work and he's so amazing

and I said to Bill, "We've got to go to Largo.

"This guy is so funny," and Bill's like,

"I'm not," you know, "I'm not going, I'm not going."

- I used to say that by the time, it's a mistake,

by the time you're in your 30's, you're cooked.

You know what I mean, it was you know

what you like musically.

My wife searches for new music,

Zach searches for new music and these things converged.

- I met that boy Zach Braff at a party, one night,

and I remember him at the party, saying to me,

"I've got this gig in this television show."

I said, "Good man."

He said, "I'm going to be the star."

I said, "More power to you."

He said, "I'll take your CDs in there

"and see if I can get them played on the show."

I said, "You do that very thing."

(audience laughing)

- Bill comes up to me when we were doing Scrubs and says,

"You know what Zach says we should really do?"

I said, "What?"

He said, "Zach says we should really go to Largo

"and hear this guy Colin Hay."

I was like, "Really?

"Did Zach braff say that we should go to Largo

"and see Colin Hay perform?"

And, Bill's like, "Yeah, he's really funny."

I was like, "Really, is he?"

- When I first saw him as a solo act,

I've never seen someone that was such an open book.

That's what struck me as much as the music, you know,

especially in a town that 90% of the people you walk into

spend most of their conversation telling you

the fake giant things that they're currently doing.

"I'm developing this film,

"I've got this show in development,

"this album's being recorded," you know,

and to hear someone up there, onstage, saying,

you know, "I was here and now I'm here

"and I might actually be happier, here."

- And, he brought the guy that created Scrubs down,

a guy called Bill Lawrence, to see me play, one night,

and he said to me after the show,

"These are really good, these songs.

"Why do I never hear these songs on the radio?"

I said, "That's a fucking good question, right there."

(audience laughing)

(audience applauding and cheering)

- I immediately knew

that were Colin Hay more easily packageable

as a young singer songwriter that those would be

some of the biggest songs out there.

They were so good and they stick with you.

* Another day

(strummed guitar music)

- Just keep it down, shh.

* I can't get to sleep

* I think about the implications

- I think one of the things that's cool

about the position that Bill is in, all the time,

and I'm in occasionally, is being able to break bands.

But, Bill was able to do it on Scrubs weekly

and you could say, you could be in that rare position

of, like, "How does no one know about this artist?

"This artist should be a household name,"

and it's such a cool and you could literally make someone

a household name overnight.

- The opportunity to not only put his music on the show,

but, ultimately, even to put him on the show,

that I could be even a small part of people saying,

"I found Colin Hay's solo stuff because of you,"

it's one of the most fun things I've done, career-wise.

(strummed guitar music)

* Come back another day

(guitar strings twanging) (wood cracking)

(metal rail clanging)

- That'll do it.

- I have other songs.

- Oh, you do.

- It changed everything, really.

It changed everything.

I developed a huge younger following because of that.

I remember being in a coffee shop in Springfield, Illinois.

There was a guy behind the counter serving coffee,

he was about 40 years old

and there was a guy who was about 20

and the younger guy looked at me and he goes,

"I love your music, man."

I said, "Well, thanks, very much."

He goes, "Overkill is my favorite song."

I said, "Thank you," and the older guy looks at him,

he looks at me and he goes, "You know who that is?"

And, he goes, "Yeah, he's in Scrubs."

And, the older guy looks at me and he goes, "What's Scrubs?

"He was in Men At Work."

And, the young guy goes, "What's Men At Work?"

(laughing)

And then, one day when I was shooting one

of those episodes of Scrubs, I'm sitting on the park bench

with Zach Braff and he said to me, "I'm writing a movie."

I said, "Fuck, you're a busy boy."

(audience chuckling)

He said, I want to use one of your songs on the soundtrack.

I said, "Well, you go right ahead, you do that."

- So, I think with that song,

I knew I wanted to use something of Colin's in the movie

and I think with that moment,

with Natalie in the pet in the pet cemetery

and the big crane move, it was just, it just,

when you see it, you see it and it was just

kind of one of those things where we put it in

and it was just like,

"Oh, well, there's nothing that's gonna beat that."

* But if I live till I was

* A hundred and two

* I just don't think I'll ever

* Get over you

Soundtracks, as a rule, generally don't do that well,

but this one went Platinum, you know,

that's like a fucking million people went out

and bought the CD.

The song was originally on an album of mine

called Transcendental Highway in 1997

which did not go Platinum.

(audience chuckling)

I think it reached mahogany status.

(audience laughing)

It's a fine wood, but not platinum.

- None of this happens if Colin isn't writing heartbreaking

and beautiful material that is cross-generational.

* But I don't want you thinking

* That I don't get asked

* To dinner

* 'Cause I'm here to say

* That I sometimes do

- Often, if you're dealing with an artist

that's been on a major label

and they've had a certain level of success,

then, they don't have the right work ethic

for what they do, at this point,

to make it fit the independent label structure

and just the methods

that go along with selling records in that space.

- I still feel like I'm starting again in many ways,

although, I'm 60, you know, and the last decade was,

it was all hand-to-hand combat.

- And, Colin was right there, you know.

He was doing everything that an artist needs to do,

taking it out to the road, you know,

getting in front of the fans.

- Every time he'd out one out, there'd be some really,

really, really great stuff on there, just, like, wow.

(gentle guitar music)

- None of us can be 25 forever and if you don't change

and if you don't evolve, you're doing something wrong

and you're kidding yourself.

And, Colin is a real artist.

He doesn't do that.

(strummed guitar music)

("Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree" by Marion Sinclair)

* Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree

* Merry, merry king of the bush is he

* Laugh, Kookaburra

* Laugh, Kookaburra

* Gay your life must be

(radio static crackling)

- [Announcer] The times, weather and--

* Always

(flute music warbling)

(radio static crackling)

("Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree" and "Down Under")

* Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree

* Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree

* Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree

(pulsing electronic music)

(audience applauding and cheering)

- Good day, my name's Adam Hills.

Welcome to a special Children's Music Edition

of Spicks and Specks.

- Well, there's a TV show called Spicks and Specks,

a music trivia gameshow.

- Name the Australian nursery rhyme

this riff has been based on

as well as the name of the man playing it.

(flute music from "Down Under")

(electronic beeping)

- It's Men At Work. - Men At Work,

Down Under - Yeah.

- It's Greg Ham is the flautist.

- Greg Ham of Men At Work, yes.

- And, Down Under is the, no?

- [Adam] No!

- There's a nursery rhyme. - We don't know that one.

(panelists talking over each other)

- [Adam] That riff had been based

on a nursery rhyme. - Are you kidding?

- All right, I'll give you one more listen to it,

(flute music from "Down Under")

this bit especially.

* Da da da da da da da da da

(groaning) (buzzer ringing)

- Oh! * Merry, merry king

* of the bush is he * Merry king of the--

* Laugh, Kookaburra - Yeah.

* Laugh, kookaburra - Oh my gosh, really?

- Kookaburra Sitting in the Old Gum Tree?

- That's exactly the one! (audience applauding)

I don't know who their researcher was,

but that was the question

and that was sort of the way it was put.

- And, I believed that somebody had contacted the owner

of Kookaburra the next say and said,

"Were you, did you hear this, were you aware of it?"

And, "What?"

No idea.

- One thing leads to another and pretty soon we've got,

we've got a legal case

and so, that's sort of how it all kicked off.

(synthesizer music droning)

- It's one of the most iconic Australian pop songs

of all time, but now a legal spat has broken out

over whether the Men At Work song Down Under is actually

a rip-off of a children's song.

- [Reporter] Now, the iconic Australian song

and number one hit could cost the band millions.

- This is the really interesting part about this case

and about, you know, the law and its application,

in particular, to a sort of a creative process.

- It was where the law

and the arts just don't get each other.

- In the song, there's at least half of Kookaburra

distributed throughout the various parts of the song

and repeated various times.

- Clearly, to me, that little piece of music was always

in the arrangement of the song

and their claim, their ambit claim, against the songwriters

was just bad form.

- Colin and Ron were playing Down Under.

They'd written that song before Men At Work existed.

That flute part was sort of added on later.

- Well, they were originally after 60%

of the copyright of Down Under which was a ludicrous thing

as far as I was concerned.

- It was devastating.

It was devastating

because it's a baby you are talking about.

Our songs are our babies and that was his baby.

- I mean, I feel dumb because the whole,

the litigation took place, you know.

I think, well, how'd it get to that point?

Because, surely we could have figured it out

without going to court, but then, I think about it,

I thought, well, if somebody wants 60% of your song

and there's two bars of their song,

they just didn't make any sense.

So, you have to defend it.

- For someone to come along and say,

"Hang on, you stole something within that song

"and that song's not all yours,"

that affected him very personally.

- You know, I remember talking to my father about it

and I was trying to calm him down

because he knew the truth of it.

You know, he knew that when I wrote the song

that there was nothing appropriated from anybody

because I played the song,

played all the songs I would write for them.

I'd go down and see them and play them songs.

So, he was just, he was just incensed,

you know, like, smoke would come out of his ears, you know?

- Colin and I got to Sydney and went to court

with the whole (sighs) circus around

and then Colin, that day, he took his guitar

and he sang for the judge.

Man, the judge's face,

I wish that people would have seen the judge's face.

He was (gasps).

He, it was like his hero was in front of him.

You know, he was so respectful of Colin.

He understood and he gave them the smallest amount

because it was wrong.

It was so, I, (gasps).

(synthesizer music droning)

- You know, after five years of litigation, and, ah,

you know, it cost something like $4 1/2 million

and, in terms of what they got awarded, in dollar figures,

you know, it's like a hundred grand,

so it was like $4 1/2 million dollars,

chasing a hundred grand.

So, they didn't really win, they just lost less than us.

- The only people who won,

out of that whole deal, were the lawyers.

The lawyers did great.

The publishing company made shit!

(synthesizer music droning)

- It affected the people in the band.

It affected Colin's family.

- It devastated Colin's daddy, I have to say.

He wouldn't complain, you know, as much,

but I knew that in his head, it was really going on.

- And, he was getting older and he was getting stressed

and, you know, I can't make any claim

that this was the reason that he died,

but I do know, I do feel instinctively

that it really contributed to knocking him off his perch.

(tranquil guitar music)

I never got to say goodbye to my old man before he died

because he was in Melbourne and I was playing,

in Glasgow, strangely enough, on the River Clyde

about 20 streets away from where he was born.

It was like some bleak poem.

- [Announcer] We can't have this conversation, Colin Hay,

without talking about the court case

and you've, several times, spoken to us

about the impact it had on you

and now we're wondering about the impact it had on Greg.

- And then, Gregory, who felt incredibly guilty

about having played the line, unconsciously or not,

he goes downhill

and can't seem to,

conquer whatever demons were going on,

and he goes, he dies.

(synthesizer music droning)

- It, I definitely think it haunted him that

that lawsuit even happened.

That's my own gut feeling about it.

Greg Ham was a beautiful person

and deserved to be around to this very day.

(synthesizer music droning)

- You know, it's blood.

It's people you love who are, who you're losing

over this litigation based on greed and opportunism,

as far as I'm concerned.

- [Announcer] Colin, your text to me earlier this morning

was that you were due to perform.

How can you go onstage

with all of this swirling through your head?

How are you coping with that?

- [Colin] It's difficult, it's difficult.

I'm in Baltimore, but there's, you know, I don't know.

(static crackling)

- [Announcer] You okay?

- [Colin] Yeah, I'm just,

Greg, he'll, he'll play with me tonight.

I remember playing Down Under in Brazil last year

and it was incredible, 25,000 people,

I was playing there with a band

and the crowd was singing along

and I came back in to sing the third verse

and they all just kind of realized I was gonna sing again

and they just went, oh,

and they have me all their energy and it was like, oh,

just like I was floating on top of the world.

And then, just at that moment,

I thought of that fucking court case.

(audience laughing)

And, I just thought of that moment there in Parintins

with 25,000 people, singing along.

I'm playing with a band and these dancers,

dancing on the stage, I just thought,

"They can't touch this."

(gentle guitar playing "Down Under")

- Everybody loves that song, there's no doubt about it.

- It's an iconic song in Australian culture, goes deep.

But, I think since that court case,

that's added another dimension to it

of kind of the underdog being done over by big business.

* I said to the man, are you trying to tempt me

* Because I come from a land of plenty

* And he said, oh

* Do you come from a land Down Under

* Oh yeah, yeah

* Women glow and men plunder

* Can't you hear the thunder

* You better run, you better take cover

* 'Cause we are living in a land Down Under

* Oh yeah, where women glow

* Men, they plunder

* Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder

* You better run

* You better run

* You better run

* You better run

* You better run

* You better run

* You better run

* You better run

* Better run

* Better run

* Better run

* You better run

* Living in a land Down Under

* Where women glow and men plunder

* Can't you hear the thunder

* You better run, you better take cover

(distant guitar music)

* The time was sung badly

* And that caused delight

- As I remember, playing Rutgers College, in the basement

and then playing in front of 17,000 people in New Jersey

and then, waking up the next morning

and having just as many wants and needs as I did

when I was playing in the basement.

From that day, I learned

that there is no final, like, boom-you've-done-it success.

With Colin, it might have taken him 16 years to get

to playing however many people he plays in front of now,

but, he still won't stop

because there is no finish line.

- So, I had to ask myself a question,

(gentle guitar music)

that if I never, ever get back

to those lofty peaks ever again,

is playing on a Friday night

at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston,

(audience applauding and cheering)

is that gonna be good enough?

And, you realize,

it's really not. (audience laughing)

* 'Cause any minute now

* My ship is coming in

* I keep checking the horizon

- He does it because he's a craftsman

and it's like, somebody who's good at their job

and they know it, well,

what do you do when you're good at it?

You go out and do it.

You don't stay home, you can't.

- I talk about retirement and he just looks at me

and he says, "I don't even understand what that means."

- If he just hung out and played in the garden

and went on walks and hikes and read books, and,

he would slowly go crazy,

'cause he would not have that feeling

of the purpose of being alive.

- Creativity is my salvation and going out on the road

and those two hours and what you get from that is,

you know, you get high.

* And you say, be still my love

* Open up your heart

* Let the light shine in

* Don't you understand

* I already have a plan

* I'm waiting for my real life to begin

- You do it to get to that because that's the addiction.

You want that.

You want it again, because it's clean, it's pure.

It only involves these people and you,

so you can't, you can't fake that.

You know, it doesn't happen from a, it's got nothing to do

with a radio station or a record company.

It has to do with,

with connecting with people, you know.

That's what I'm trying to tell you.

* Whoa oh oh oh

* Whoa oh oh oh

- I hope that's what it is,

'cause otherwise, I've been wasting my time.

(laughing)

* Whoa oh oh oh

* Whoa oh oh oh

(gentle guitar music)

* But on a clear day

* I can see, see for long way

* On a clear day

* I can see

* See for a long way

(audience applauding and cheering)

- [Colin] Thank you, very much.

- [Interviewer] What do you think about, when you're, ah--

- Och (laughs).

I think the key is not to think.

I think thinking is a highly overrated activity.

(door handle clicking)

(strummed guitar music)

- [Andrew K.] The more Colin is himself,

the more engrossing it is.

That generosity is overwhelming.

* I woke up this morning

* The same old questions in my head

- He's instantly inspiring.

- I think he feels a need to connect with people

and he's really good at it.

- What do you think about before a show, Brad?

* Leave the light on

* Should you decide to visit me

- And, he is probably the best living troubadour today.

- He's just so fucking good.

* I've been an angry and a jealous man

* And I have no right to be

* Perhaps it's just my wicked, wicked ways

* Catching up to me

* Still, I've done my time

* And I've paid the price

* And after all, what's just a little pain

* If I learn from my mistakes

* Then my loss becomes my gain

* Still I leave - I think it's that door.

- Uh huh. * The light on

- God damn it.

Wait, it's around here, don't panic.

Don't panic. * And should you decide

I'm not panicking. * To visit me

- That's good, don't panic.

Ah, let's just go back to the elevator.

- Go back to the elevator, the lights are on.

- This didn't happen.

- Oh, yes, it did.

* The beginning yet to come

* I'm gonna throw the doors wide open

* I'm gonna let my spirit run

* I'll leave the light on

* Should you decide

* Should you ever decide

* You may someday feel inclined to visit me

(audience applauding and cheering)

(strummed guitar music)

People ask me all the time, they say,

"Why do you keep going on tour

"as much as you do?"

I suppose the simplest answer is that

it makes me feel useful.

(woman shrieking)

Everybody has to find their place

in this expanding universe.

This is my place.

(audience applauding and cheering)

* 'Cause I do like a simple song

* Everyone can sing along

* It doesn't matter where you're from

* Most people like a simple song

* Sure is good to fall in love

* Feels like a gift from up above

* I never seemed to get enough, yeah

* Sure is cool to fall in love

* Things don't always stay the same

* She says she wants to give you back your name

* Never clear just who's to blame

* And it always gets so complicated

* One day, you wake up on your own

* If I had kids, they'd all be grown

* Of all the people I have known

* True friends, there's not too many

* But I'm not trying to bring you down

* And I still get to play from town to town

* Still is magic all around

* But when I hit the ground, I'm running

* But I don't want to die alone

* Where I cannot reach the phone

* In my multistory home

* No, I don't want to die alone

* And it's not preying on my mind

* But I do think about from time to time

* And it's not likely to happen soon

* But you may not even see it coming

* So, help me sing this simple song

* Everyone, sing along

* It doesn't matter where you're from

* 'Cause one day we're here and then we're gone